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Sunday, August 5, 2012

Throne of Glass Blog Tour, Book Review and Author Interview!

I am so excited to be participating in the Throne of Glass Blog Tour hosted by Bloombury! Along with the Tour I will also be doing a special interview with author Sarah J. Mass.

I absolutely fell in love with the world and characters that Maas created. Throne of Glass truly is unlike other books out there right now and I am so excited to be able to share a little bit about the book with you as well as my thoughts and review on it and most especially to be able to peek inside the head of Maas and the brilliance that is her.

Book Description:

After serving out a
year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes,
18-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien is dragged before the Crown
Prince. Prince Dorian offers her her freedom on one condition: she must
act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.

Her
opponents are men—thieves and assassins and warriors from across the
empire, each sponsored by a member of the kings council. If she beats
her opponents in a series of eliminations, she’ll serve the kingdom for
three years and then be granted her freedom.

Celaena finds her
training sessions with the captain of the guard, Westfall, challenging
and exhilirating. But she’s bored stiff by court life. Things get a
little more interesting when the prince starts to show interest in
her... but it’s the gruff Captain Westfall who seems to understand her
best.

Then one of the other contestants turns up dead... quickly
followed by another. Can Celaena figure out who the killer is before she
becomes a victim? As the young assassin investigates, her search leads
her to discover a greater destiny than she could possibly have imagined.

Sarah was so kind to agree to be here today and to answer a few of my questions. Big thank you to you Sarah!!

MGO: I know
you were only 16 when you first published a draft of Throne of Glass
(then called Queen of Glass), what made you decide to become a
writer? Was it something you always wanted to do or was it just
something you planned to do as a past time for fun?

SARAH: I’ve
always been a huge daydreamer. And I really feel like part of the
reason why I got into writing was because while growing up, I’d see
films like Star Wars or Sleeping Beauty or Indiana Jones and wish
that *I* could be the one doing all the epic/badass stuff. I’d
daydream that I was Luke battling Vader, or Indiana Jones fleeing
from the booby-trapped temple. But, because I obviously CAN’T do
those things in real life (…or CAN I?), I’d invent stories in my
head where things like that DID happen to strong and interesting
heroines. Writing them down felt like the closest thing to actually
getting to have those adventures myself. And once I started writing
down those stories, they spawned more stories, on and on, until I got
the idea for Throne of Glass.MGO: How
many books are you planning in the series?

SARAH: *Wince*
Well…if the publishing gods smile upon me…Six. That’s the full
arc that I have planned, at least. It remains to be seen if I’ll
actually get to publish them. *crosses fingers*

MGO: Most
influential person in your life?

SARAH: Hmmm. I don’t
think I have a particularly influential person in my life, though I
certainly have people that get me through the hard times: my family,
my husband, and my best friend. I don’t know what I’d do without
them.

MGO: What book
or movie or person helped inspire you the most while writing this
series?

SARAH: Ack! Hard
question! There were SO many books and movies that inspired me while
writing Throne of Glass:
Lord of the Rings, Kill Bill, Chicago, The Secret of NIMH, Sabriel,
The Hero & the Crown, Star Wars, Cinderella, Ever After… I
could go on and on.

MGO:Who was
your favorite character(s) to write about?

SARAH: Celaena,
definitely. But if I had to pick a close second, then…Chaol
Westfall. OR, recently, Ansel of Briarcliff (from the prequel
e-novellas).

MGO: I am
always curious what authors read in their free time. What was the
last book you read?

SARAH: PRODIGY by
Marie Lu (the sequel to LEGEND). It was ridiculously amazing and
ripped my heart out. I’m still reeling from it.

MGO: Hardback,
paperback or ebook?

SARAH: Oh, it
depends! I love my kindle for reading my guilty pleasure: adult
paranormal romances (BIG fan of Nalini Singh, Thea Harrison, and J.
R. Ward). I love the nostalgic comfort of those tiny paperbacks for
my (adult) fantasy novels (takes me back to when I was a pre-teen and
teenager, devouring book after book). And I love hardcovers for my YA
books, because they are so darn purtyyyy.

MGO: Werewolf,
fairy, witch, vampire or something other?

SARAH: How about
big, bad dragon with a hoard of glittering treasure? (…Does that
make me weird?) I have a minor obsession with Smaug (from The
Hobbit), and have never quite
given up my love for all snarky, grumpy dragons.

SARAH: Thank you so,
so much for such a fun interview! I LOVED these questions!

BIG thank you once again to Sarah for being here today and answering my questions. I really enjoyed Throne of Glass and I can not wait until the next book in the series is out!!

My Thoughts and Review:

Unbelievable.

That pretty much sums up this book. Or
maybe awesome, breathtaking or spectacular would be better.

Or maybe...okay, okay, you get the
idea, this book was pure awesomeness.

In a lot of ways it really reminded me
of the Study series by Maria V. Synder which I absolutely loved!

I truly can not believe this is a first
time novel for Maas. This really was unbelievably good.

I usually hate it when a book is hyped
up and then I read it and either am disappointed in it or could of
cared less about it, this is so not one of those books. It lives up
to its hype and more.

The world and character building were
wonderfully done. I really felt myself become immersed not only in
the story but into the lives of the characters. I cared about them
and I wanted to learn all I could about them. I cheered them on when
they triumphed and wanted to hug them when they were down. The
characters were very fleshed out and they felt very real to me.

Calaena is a strong kick butt
character, not only because hey, she is an assassin and kills people
for a living, but because she possess inner strength that most
people in her situation would not possess.

She has seen and done a lot of horrible
things in her short lifetime, yet she is still caring and
compassionate and knows how to love. She is witty and entertaining
and just a fun character, maybe on of my favorite ones I have read
this year to date. I didn't want her story to end. There is so much
more there to her that we still don't know, things that I don't even
know if she knows and I can't wait to discover them in the
(hopefully) next book.

Dorian and Chaol are two men very much
worthy of her love and respect. Both are strong capable compassionate
men that would give her a run for her money. They have some many
similarities and some many differences that I don't envy Calaena the
choice between the two. I don't even know how I would decide if were
in her place. And while there wasn't quite a love triangle (you can
breath a sigh of relief all haters of love triangles) there very much
is that possibilities there that Maas left open to us.

This was a very well crafted story that
was completely engaging and held my interest from the very first page
and it really was hard to see it end. I am so glad that I still have
the novellas to read and I can learn more about Calaena because, I
truly did not want this book to end. I am very excited to see what
Maas has in store for us with the next one. I can not wait to devour
it too.

I really am sad this story ended and I
know I am going to have a really hard time finding something to read
next after this one.

Well done Ms. Maas, well done.

This book deserves no less than the 5 Stars that I am giving it, in fact I wish that I could give it 5 more.

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About Me

I am a full time mom and avid reader. When I am not playing dress up or chasing down lost toys and wrestling with the never ending pile of laundry, I read. Actually, I read whenever I get the chance. I love many different genres and would have a hard time choosing just one favorite book. And yes I really am obsessed with books, in fact I might be a book hoarder. Thankfully I have a Kindle and no one is the wiser to my vastly growing collection of books.